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Not Your Millennial's 'Resident Evil'

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  The beloved video game franchise has been adapted into several movies and TV shows countless times in the last 20 years, and none have really pleased fans or casual viewers alike. You'd think they would stop, but they never gave up on it. Now, with Zach Cregger at the helm, Sony has brought back Resident Evil with the intention of possibly revitalizing the franchise in hopes of being considered part of not only the current horror renaissance but also the slew of successful video game adaptations.  Cregger, director of The Barbarian and Weapons , intended to create an experience with his third outing that might recreate the feeling of a bystander watching someone else play the games. He also uses his filmmaking and writing styles to create a fresh take on the otherworldly world-building that has become integral to video games and the survival-horror subgenre.  He manages to do it extremely well, with the intention of certain shots conveying the POV in PlayStation singl...

The Lack Of What Made The 80's Cool Again (The End Of Oak Street review)

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  So what happens when you put Dinosaurs attacking suburban America in the 80's? I think J.J. Abrams and David Robert Mitchell have your answer. The End of Oak Street is the last movie of the summer, in hopes of competing with the very prominent and popular choices that audiences would rather flock to see in cinemas. The concept of this film is interesting, as Anne Hathaway (in her fourth feature this year) and Ewan McGregor are suburban parents, with their two kids played by Maisy Stella and Christian Convery, who are facing difficulties in their nuclear family dynamic and are forced to survive as their street is transported to the age of the dinosaurs. A concept that, personally, intrigued me before I ever watched a trailer.  Unfortunately, the film seems to be living in an era when the 80s were cool again, but it is instead a reminder that maybe that trend has officially run its course. There have been several TV shows and movies that used the 80's to possibly kickstart wha...

Misguided Intentions within OG Disney Channel DNA (Camp Rock 3 review)

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  If anyone had asked 10 years ago whether a Camp Rock sequel would ever happen, I would have said it wouldn't be right to make another without Demi Lovato or the Jonas Brothers, despite their personal relationships with each other and with Disney. Now, 19 years since the movie that spawned cringe-worthy memes and made Lovato the superstar she is now, she returns WITH the Jonas Brothers to produce an all-new generation of the franchise.  Camp Rock 3 now focuses on new characters attending the iconic camp and finding themselves in an opportunity to be Connect 3's (The literal fictional equivalent of the Jonas Brothers, if anyone forgot) new opening act. This Disney Channel sequel closely follows the original film's familiar plot structure, from its musical elements to the Final Jam, which serves as a turning point for these characters to fully realize themselves in their subsequent arcs and learn lessons along the way. Liamani Segura, who plays the main role as Sage, is a s...

How Do You Help A Lonely Spider Man? (Spider Man Brand New Day review)

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  Yes, we get a whole month with not only Tom Holland but also Zendaya and Jon Bernthal in the fourth (yes, we are making waves here) Spider-Man sequel. This has been a long time coming, as Marvel and Sony's once rocky but stable relationship would follow up on the event that was Spider-Man: No Way Home , which brought back past Spider-Man actors to interact in a Multiverse-esque adventure. Luckily, Tom Holland returns as the iconic webslinger in an all-new chapter of his life and hopefully for the MCU as well.  Spider-Man: Brand New Day is set 4 years after No Way Home , where Peter Parker is very much alone after the spell made by Doctor Strange to have everyone, including his loved ones, forget who he is. At the height of being the comic-accurate friendly neighborhood superhero ways, some very critical fans of this iteration of the character will also be pleased that Peter Parker is indeed very depressed and very broke. When faced with a mysterious threat, Peter is also go...

The Realist's Take On The Original Adventure (The Odyssey review)

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  The phenomenon is here. The movie everyone has been waiting for (maybe some people aren't), by the world-acclaimed director Christopher Nolan, returns with his latest feature, The Odyssey , adapting one of the oldest epic poems to the big screen. There has been a lot of talk around this movie, from its use of IMAX cameras to its overall tone to the ethnically blind casting and whether it was meant to be watched on the big screen, as Nolan intended.  The Odyssey , if anyone isn't aware yet, tells the tale of Odysseus's attempts to return home with his crew after the siege of Troy, an event also recounted in another of Homer's epics, The Iliad, which is set during the Trojan War. As they return, they face various obstacles rooted in Greek mythology. With a more realistic take that leans into realism, Nolan depicts what I personally consider fantasy as something that might have occurred in history, rather than even questioning the involvement of the gods and the magic th...

Enola Sparks Blend Between Colonization and Feminism (Enola Holmes 3 review)

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  She's back! Enola Holmes returns in this all-new sequel to one of Netflix's most successful franchises, which also features Millie Bobby Brown. With most of the main cast returning and the plot set entirely in Malta, this threequel sees Enola now marrying Louise Partridge's Tewksbury, the slow-burn budding romance the franchise had been building towards. Unaware of how much they are adapting from Nancy Springer's book series, does this new installment live up to the expectations set by its well-received predecessors?  Enola is facing her greatest challenge yet. Marriage! And that is ultimately compounded by the disappearance of her more famous sibling, Sherlock Holmes. But boy, does the script immediately try to get to its point: not to spend time in Victorian London, but in Malta. The film has a considerably shorter runtime than the previous films, which I immediately found suspicious, and I later learned that they changed directors, which seemed to answer some of th...

Yes! I Liked Off Campus (Full Season 1 Review)

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  After The Summer I Turned Pretty ended, it seems Amazon Prime was banking on another romance hit for their streaming service, and they have found it. The Off Campus phenomenon is what everyone is talking about. Authored by Elle Kennedy, this first season adapts the first book, focusing on the fake-relationship trope between Hannah, an aspiring composer, and Garrett, the star hockey player on the college team.  Personally, the idea of this show did not appeal to me. From the outside perspective, it was another scandalous, almost trashy romance show that seemed to make a relationship unnecessarily messy to make the plot interesting. Based on that sentiment, it seemed that Off Campus was also capitalizing on the more problematic aspects of romance outlets that have been exciting audiences today.  However, I finally tuned in to the show a month after its release, and it does prove itself not only entertaining but also offering real, healthy ways of approaching several of ...